Satisfaction strength and customer loyalty

Evidence reveals that many customers who state that they are satisfied with a service provider nevertheless defect. In this article, the authors focus on identifying which customers are vulnerable to defection despite their stated high levels of satisfaction. Building on the recently developed Judgment Uncertainty and Magnitude Parameters (JUMP) model, the authors decompose customers' stated satisfaction into two related but independent facets-satisfaction level and satisfaction strength-and then examine the role of satisfaction strength in the translation of satisfaction into loyalty. Using data from an ongoing customer satisfaction tracking study being conducted by a large U.S.-based service organization, Study 1 examines the role of satisfaction strength in shaping the satisfaction-loyalty link in a business-to-business setting. Study 2, a conceptual replication in a business-to-consumer context, examines the hypothesized relationships in a service failure/recovery situation. The studies strongly demonstrate that satisfaction strength plays a central role in the translation of stated satisfaction into loyalty. A key finding is that though satisfaction translates into loyalty when satisfaction is strongly held (i.e., low uncertainty), the translation is significantly lowered, on average, by approximately 60% when the same satisfaction is more weakly held (i.e., high uncertainty). The studies also indicate that prior relationship aspects (length of relationship, volume of business, and favorability of prior experiences) result in even greater vulnerability.